Not Too Small to Appear on a Big No-Fly Watch List

A RESPONSE to last week’s column about the chronic troubles of air travelers came from Christine Anderson, who says she was with her son Jack both times he was told that he was on the terrorist watch list.

The first time was in 2004, when Jack; his mother; his brothers Joey, then 8, and Joshua, then 5; and their grandmother, Susan, arrived at the airport in Minneapolis for a trip to Disney World.

“The woman at the ticket counter demanded, ‘Who is John Anderson?’ ” Ms. Anderson recalled. She pointed at the baby stroller and said, “He’s right here.” The suspect, then 2 years old, blinked his big blue eyes and happily gummed his pacifier.

“That baby’s on the no-fly watch list,” the agent said.

His brothers became agitated. “We’re not going to Disney World!” one of them wailed, according to Ms. Anderson.

Like business travelers I hear from every week, Jack was actually flagged because his name matches, or is similar to, the name of someone on the federal terrorist watch list. Like many travelers, Jack and his mother have been erroneously informed by airline clerks that their names are on the list.

In fact, their names merely turn up on lists compiled by individual airlines, which then check them against the federal data.

The Transportation Security Administration said on Monday that it planned to crack down on, and perhaps fine, airlines whose employees erroneously misinform passengers that they are on the terrorist watch list, rather than on an airline list.

Photo

Credit
Chris Gash

“We are very concerned with airline representatives telling people they’re on a list when it’s not appropriate,” said Christopher White, a spokesman for the agency.

The confusion stems from federal procedures that prevent the agency from directly screening passengers in advance because of privacy concerns when airlines provide passenger information to the government. As a result, the airlines have to compile a database of names and variants of names to check against the federal list. Once an innocent passenger shows up and voluntarily provides identification, airlines can then clear that person, case by case and trip by trip, as not being on the watch list.

Airlines say they are unfairly stuck with the logistical and financial burdens of ensuring that any given passenger is not on the federal list. The federal list contains names and aliases, and usually detailed personal information, about suspects, from information provided by law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Airlines can collect only names and variants of names.

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A program called Secure Flight, which will allow the T.S.A. to screen passengers directly, has been stalled by the privacy concerns. But with public discontent growing over the current haphazard administration of the watch list at airports, it is now expected to take effect next year.

That will be none too soon for the business travelers I hear from every week whose names raise a red flag when they fly. Christine Anderson will be among those welcoming it.

Her concern, she told me, goes beyond a mere hour’s delay at the airport while Jack’s name is cleared. It’s more about the effect such a stigma has on people like Jack, she said.

Jack’s brothers, of course, made a big deal about their baby brother being a terrorist suspect — especially when it happened again two years later on another family trip when Jack, then 4, was taken aside.

“I understand a delay at the airport is a small price to pay for security,” Ms. Anderson said, adding: “But it’s more than just a delay. Jack’s a sweet, sensitive boy. What will the ramifications be for him, years later? Kids don’t rationalize like adults. His take on this is, ‘I don’t do bad things, but they say I do.’ And you can’t tell him differently.”

Since the last airport incident, the family has driven on vacations to avoid airport trouble for Jack.

E-mail: jsharkey@nytimes.com

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page C5 of the New York edition with the headline: Not Too Small to Appear On a Big No-Fly Watch List. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe